Kam Razavi
The clock strikes eleven PM
and the Loft Bar and Bistro
owner Kam Razavi’s night
has just begun. In the heart of
Downtown San Jose, people
begin to lineup down the street
hoping they will get into the
club without any hassle. Kam
Razavi greets people at the door
and decides who will be let in,
to make sure the restaurant/
nightclub lives up to its exceptional standards. If you walk
by the Loft after six on most
days of the week you will see
Kam, communicating with the
customers, he is always laughing and greeting people. I’ve
known Kam since I was a little
kid, and he has always given
me the warmest welcome. After
greeting me he then offers if I
want anything, and he isn’t only
like this around me. I’ve seen
him obtain very close relationships with his customers over
the years at The Loft Bar and
Bistro, or at his other restaurant named Capers. He’s a great
peoples person and this is what
makes him successful in what
he does.

Located in what used to be
called one of safest cities in
the US, Downtown San Jose
has taken a turn for the worse.
With the crime rate drastically
raising it makes me wonder,
will this city get any better
or continue on its downward
spiral, and is there anything
we can do? These are questions
Kam Razavi knows all the
answers to, he has seen it all,
and continually communicates
with the local police. Kam has
to deal with the crime in San
Jose day to day because of this
nightclub he owns. His job has
become more vigorous because
of the troublemaking crowd
that has recently been attracted
to the downtown. Kams answers in my interview with him
were very precise and he knew
all the facts that weren’t as
broadly publicized. He doesn’t
feel like the future is bright for
Downtown San Jose unless actions are put in place fast. These
actions that he believes should
be put in place are expressed in
the passage to continue.

On January 18, 2009
Kam witnessed the unbelievable. I didn’t feel obligated
to ask Kam about this life
changing incident so my dad,
Dave McLoughlin who is
part owners with Kam in the
Loft explained the trauma
he had to go through. On
this Sunday night at 1am in
the morning when Kam was
monitoring the club outside,
he saw two guys arguing.
Dave said, “there were a
bunch of people yelling and
fighting outside the restaurant, and Kam attempted to
break it up but the people
kept fighting.” Kam called
the police who quickly came
to the situation to break it
up, but when the cops told
the man to put his hands up
and not move he reached for
his pocket.

A policemans quick instinct
came into play, while the
man was doing this, so the
cop whipped out his gun and
fired a shot right to the mans
head. Kam was standing at
the front of the Loft Bar and
Bistro when this took place,
and saw everything happen.
Right after the man was shot
his wife started screaming so
the police tased her to calm
her down. Dave said, “seeing
a man get shot in the head
right in front of Kam really
put a toll on to him.” Kam
later had to go to multiple
court cases, and live with
that severe image of a man
being shot in the head. This
is not something you would
typically see going on outside this club at night, but
it shows how petrifying the
downtown can be.

but it shows how petrifying
the downtown can be. Kam
respects the police a lot because they’ve looked out for
him in times like these, so he
isn’t against them in any way.
In 2008 Forbes
magazine listed Downtown
San Jose as the seventh safest
city in the U.S. When I asked
Kam why this changed he
responded saying, “its because of the cutback on the
police department, they’ve
gone from almost 1400-1500
officers to 1050, and a city of
this size population should
have a minimum of 1700
officers” This was shocking
San Jose has 6050 less officers
then the minimum required.
Surprisingly Kam doesn’t
think Downtown San Jose is
as bad as people think it is,

he just believes it has a bad
reputation. “I think the media
gives the downtown a bad
image. They only report the
bad stuff they never report a
good night, or a.. lets say ok
last weekend we had Frank
Corlindo whos a pretty good
comedian. We had a great
comedian last week also, but
its never talked about in the
media, instead its about a
stabbing or shooting.” Kam
knows that the downtown
isn’t a safe place, but he feels
as if the only information you
hear coming from San Jose is
negative stuff. Yes, I do believe
this could be true, maybe the
portrayal of the downtown
the media makes isn’t as bad
as they say. Is the hype over
the downtown being a “bad
place” smaller than they make
it out to be? Kam mentioned
two great comedians that
performed at the Improv and
they weren’t publicized at all.

The media does have a huge
effect on the downtown, and I
bet it affects the type of people
going downtown late at night.
San Jose was once a
great family orientated area,
from Christmas in the Park,
to ice skating, to venuing
the Grand Prix, its a shame
to think that these privileges could go away. Kam said,
“Christmas in the park is a
great event to bring nicer
people to the downtown with
their kids.” This event attracts

many people to the downtown
annually, and it undoubtedly
impacts the Lofts business.
Due to the raising crime rate
and very little money in the
police they are thinking about
canceling the traditional
Christmas in the Park. A local
news source said they might
get rid of this event due to a
lot of thuggish behavior from
last year and the cost of police
overtime to pay for it is high.
Its a shame to see a great experience like this go away

because of the little amount of
money going towards the police
department. Kam said,“this all
changed because of the shortage of money. Their trying to
cut back 5-10% of their pay.
Their trying to take away some
of the cops retirement money
also a cop that has been working almost thirty years and has
accumulated almost 100,000
dollars and is ready to retire.
Now their saying thats not
going to happen instead their
not going to get all that money so the cops are very mad.
There were bad deals made
20-30 years ago with the police.
Unions are good but they killed
this country.

Too much union protect has
been very bad. Its a very good
idea but it has been abused.” As
Kam mentioned many unions
were made with the police department, and he thinks these
unions are what hurt San Jose,
and the rest of America. When
talking to Him about this I
could see how helpless he felt
towards the Police Department.
He recognizes how much they
protect him and his business,
and has a great relationship
with a few of the cops. am
specifically told me not to be
against the police when writing this essay, he said there’s
very little they can do with the
amount of officers they have to

work with.
The San Jose Police
Department used to be one
of the most respected police
departments in the U.S. they
were very strict and were paid
a lot. Kam said, “this used to
be one of the toughest police
departments to get a job in. To
get a job with the San Jose PD
was very impressive, and it was
very good pay. Now a days their
trying to get jobs in other cities.
This all changed because of the
shortage of money. Their trying
to cut back 5-10% of their pay.”
The cops obviously aren’t happy
about this, and its making an
impact on the quality of their
work.